FIRST VCWAP :
In 2020-2021, four young women researchers (Julie Bachellerie, Emilie Berlioz, Ana Belén Galán López, and Margot Louail), sharing the same observations about the under-representation of women researchers in our disciplines (and in particular in decision-making positions) and the consequences that this situation has in Archeology and Paleontology communities, met and decided to create the Virtual Conference for Women Archaeologists and Paleontologists (VCWAP) on the occasion of the International Women’s Rights Day on 8-9 March 2021.
We also aimed to create a dialogue between paleontologists and archaeologists, as both disciplines share many common interests and would greatly benefit from more interactions between them.
Thus, this first congress counted on the recent contributions of young and/or early career women researchers to the study of human and non-human populations as well as to the study of past environments. We proposed to organize the congress around several axes:
- new methods and methodologies
- revision of old assemblages and data
- experimentation, referential frameworks and actualistic approaches
- occupation of territories and population mobility
- access to natural resources and exploitation/subsistence strategies
- environmental changes and biological adaptations
We ended the 8th of March 2021 with a round table between the speakers and the attendees to talk about the place of women in our disciplines and the current problems we confront (access to scientific careers, practices within laboratories, in the field, at conferences, etc…).
The discussions that took place during the round table showed the need to organize such moments of exchange.
The success of this first edition was reflected in the international dimension achieved and in turn confirmed the need for an online format for this type of events: the congress brought together more than 200 people from 19 countries around the world for two really interesting days with 39 talks and 7 posters.
Organizing committee (alphabetic order):
Julie Bachellerie (Ph.D Fellow)-TRACES UMR 5608, CNRS-University Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France
Emilie Berlioz (Ph.D)-TRACES UMR 5608, CNRS-University Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès, Toulouse France & PALEVOPRIM UMR7262 CNRS -University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
Ana Belén Galán López (Ph.D)-TRACES UMR 5608, CNRS-University Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France
Margot Louail (Ph.D Fellow)-PALEVOPRIM UMR 7262 CNRS -University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
Technical support was managed by Jonathan Lafont.
Sponsors and supports of the first edition:
Host institutions:
